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Updated: Aug 15, 2026
Design, Surface Treatment, Cellular Plating, and Culturing of Modular Neuronal Networks Composed of Functionally Inter-connected Circuits
Published on: April 15, 2015
Modularity and neuronal heterogeneity: Two properties that influence in vitro neuropharmacological experiments
Martina Brofiga1,2, Fabio Poggio1, Francesca Callegari1
1Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics, and Systems Engineering (DIBRIS), University of Genova, Genova, Italy.
Introduction:
The goal of this work is to prove the relevance of the experimental model (in vitro neuronal networks in this study) when drug-delivery testing is performed.
Methods:
We used dissociated cortical and hippocampal neurons coupled to Micro-Electrode Arrays (MEAs) arranged in different configurations characterized by modularity (i.e., the presence of interconnected sub-networks) and heterogeneity (i.e., the co-existence of neurons coming from brain districts). We delivered increasing concentrations of bicuculline (BIC), a neuromodulator acting on the GABAergic system, and we extracted the IC50 values (i.e., the effective concentration yielding a reduction in the response by 50%) of the mean firing rate for each configuration.
Results:
We found significant lower values of the IC50 computed for modular cortical-hippocampal ensembles than isolated cortical or hippocampal ones.
Discussion:
Although tested with a specific neuromodulator, this work aims at proving the relevance of ad hoc experimental models to perform neuropharmacological experiments to avoid errors of overestimation/underestimation leading to biased information in the characterization of the effects of a drug on neuronal networks.
